A note to myself
I wrote this a few weeks ago and I keep it open on my desktop at all times.
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That would be cool. But you know what else would be cool? Actually finishing an idea that you started. How many times do you start to work on something and never finish it? EVERY time. You've been doing this your whole life. Somehow along the way you have learned many things and even became a master in a few different areas. But that is not what you want. You want to create. It's not really creating when you never finish.
89 comments
[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 144 ms ] threadHaving ideas is a natural impulse, following through requires discipline and hard work.
Someone said "genius is as common as dust".
Nassim Taleb said something like "it's not about having ideas, it's about learning how to manage your ideas". I might be slightly off.
Anyhow, good initiative.
It is ok to start many things. Do not think you have to finish something just because you started it. That is a very heavy burden and will discourage you from starting new things.
Sometimes, it is valuable to reflect on things you have accomplished, and avoid judging yourself when things don't work out as planned.
Still want to build. Bidding my time.
I am amazed why is it even a thing? How can employers own what you do in your spare time? (Esp. if it is in an unrelated field.)
In one case, an international company with a couple-thousand employees in the US, the company lawyers never got back to me, but the next year the contract was changed and it included a variation of my original proposed language. In the other case, a US company with tens of thousands of employees, the company lawyers got back to me immediately with a statement about how they intended the existing language to be interpreted (and this addressed my concerns).
I can't promise you will get the same results, but I thought it was worth sharing my anecdotes.
Nitpick PS: I think you meant "bide"
Just write it down.
As soon as I write it down and stick it on a list of product ideas it's out of my head and I can focus again. As a bonus you've got a nice list 'o' stuff that you can go poke through whenever you get some spare tuits.
At the moment I have (pause to look at trello) 57 items on the company "Product Ideas" backlog. Two have come off and are being actively developed. The rest - I rarely think about.
Also, empirical observation shows me that, in my own case at least, things that are put on lists do sometimes get done eventually. I'm always obsessively making lists and writing down notes about possible new features for Quoddy, and over time I find that I do keep working further and further down the list... to the point that now I'm starting on stuff that was originally labelled "Speculative / TODO: Sometime Before The Heat Death Of The Universe".
But the simple fact is, you will always have more work to do than you have bandwidth to do it, if you're a remotely interesting person. So sure, some things will "disappear". That's okay. If they DON'T disappear, other things won't get done.
Getting things written down and out of my head definitely helps me to focus.
Cannot agree more. If you don't write it down, you will forget it. Trying to remember a feature, that you knew was good, but cannot remember now because you didn't write it down, can be frustrating.
It can mean "project manager" (as georgemcbay said) or "product manager" (which is different from project manager, but they sometimes look similar from the perspective of a programmer). It's pretty clear from context that one of these was more likely than "prime minister".
If I'm lucky others will chime in to back me up that it's astoundingly effective for exactly the psychology you describe. We can unambiguously say that Beeminder itself wouldn't have survived without beeminding it. :)
And, yes, that's me making her laugh. I was trying hard to get her to conceal how much she hates making videos! :)
But let's save this stuff for our next "Show HN". For this thread I'm really eager to hear thoughts on whether self-tracking and commitment devices are a good approach to the OP's problem.
I would modify this note to be "Actually finish an MVP then move on"
Life-changing.
Planning gets simple and you tend to do things the better way, your mind which was just filled with things about this and that is now ready to do something about those things.
Of course its still odd to link someone to just a to-do list manager instead someone should explain what should be done with that tool.
1. A To Do list separated by due today (or this week), due this month, due this quarter, due this year. Some stuff winds up on multiple lists (e.g. grad school is on this quarter and this year to keep it in my mind).
2. A few shopping list templates with basic items. I don't ever update them, but when I get to the store, I look and make sure to get whatever I know I don't have (the list has stuff like eggs, meat, vegtables, fruit. It's extremely vague, but helps me not miss a section).
3. Random notes that I've written down and may or may not ever go back to. I used to have a collection of these on my computer in assorted Doc files (and some on google drive) and I never knew where the one I wanted was). I read through my whole workflowy every month or so and get rid of what doesn't belong anymore. A lot of times, though, I am reminded of something I wrote down months ago and can now think of it again.
4. A few small projects that I'm working on broken into steps to make the whole project seem less daunting. Currently have a bathroom remodel on there (I used to do construction, so this really is a small project for me) with tasks like: tile, plumbing, electric and sub sections for what I need to pick up from Home Depot.
It's not perfect, but the apps that are currently out there never worked for me (Orchesta, Clearly, Remember the Milk, etc.)
These days working in higher ed I complete a lot of projects at my day job, but I start a lot that I never finish on my own time. To me, personally, it is more rewarding when I learn something new, come up with something that I think is cool, whether the project gets finished or not.
Perhaps that would make a great app. Periodic anecdotes from yourself. /me checks the app store